Why You Shouldn't Ignore Subtle Signs of a Foot Fracture

With 26 bones in each foot, you have potentially 52 places to suffer from a foot fracture. It’s not always easy to recognize minor injuries as fractures, while serious fractures could require extensive surgery to stabilize. 

Your feet handle extreme loads under normal, everyday conditions. These forces can keep a fractured bone from healing properly, even when it’s a tiny hairline stress fracture. 

Understanding the sometimes subtle signs that you’ve got a foot fracture may be the difference between trouble-free recovery and increasing complications. The team at Hudson Valley Foot Associates prepared this blog to help you know when your feet may need professional care to ensure your fracture heals suitably. 

The potential impact from a foot fracture

Because of the small size of many of the bones in your feet, fractures are quite common. Injuries may stem from sudden trauma, perhaps stubbing your toe severely, through an accident or a fall, or perhaps because of a sports injury. 

Some bones are vulnerable to stress fractures from overuse or repeated motions, such as with sports training or job requirements. Regardless of the cause, foot fractures usually require medical attention to assure proper treatment. 

While serious injuries are typically obvious, it’s easy to suffer smaller fractures with ambiguous symptoms. Without care, you may repeatedly re-injure a fractured bone, leading to the potential for long-term problems because of improper healing. 

Recognizing the subtle signs of a fractured foot bone

Fractures that cause extreme pain and physical disfiguration can be easy to recognize. Minor injuries might be harder to identify as a broken bone. 

Let’s look at the common occurrence of the stubbed toe. Virtually everyone bumps their foot against hard objects, and it creates substantial pain. 

Often, though, this pain subsides quickly, leaving you with a few days of tenderness but no lasting harm. However, if you stub your toe hard enough, you could fracture a bone, and you might see other symptoms, including: 

• Bruising of the injured toe
• Swelling that could be immediate or growing over time
• Enough discomfort to change the way you walk
• Pain when upright that eases off when you take weight off
• Your balance on your feet becomes weak
• Persistent symptoms that should little to no improvement over time

Stress fractures brought on by repetitive strain cause similar symptoms but unlike a stubbed toe or other acute injury, these symptoms may appear without warning, since you’re not aware of the development of the stress fracture. 

However, the risk of re-injury is the same for any type of mild fracture. While it’s possible for minor fractures to heal spontaneously, there’s no way for you to predict the outcome without medical supervision and diagnostic imaging. 

To follow up on a suspected broken bone, contact the foot and ankle fracture specialists at Hudson Valley Foot Associates at the nearest of our five locations, including our new location in Hudson, New York. Request an appointment online or by phone today.